The present invention relates to a webbing guide for use with a seat belt apparatus provided for the protection of passengers in a vehicle in case of emergency, and more particularly to a webbing guide of this kind which is capable of guiding a shoulder webbing of the apparatus in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle so as to allow a passenger to put on the seat belt webbing properly and easily.
In a seat belt apparatus having a single length of webbing formed of two continuous shoulder and lap webbing portions, one end of the webbing is wound on a webbing reel device provided on a side wall of the vehicle, the other end of the webbing is secured to the vehicle's side wall by an anchor plate, and an intermediate portion of the webbing is hung through a slip joint so as to be guided thereby.
With such a seat belt apparatus, when a tongue plate slidably carried by the intermediate portion of the webbing that is between the slip joint and the anchor plate is engaged by a passenger with a buckle device supported at a substantially central location in the widthwise direction of the vehicle, the passenger can put on the webbing of the seat belt. When the passenger disengages the tongue plate from the buckle device and releases the webbing from the fastened condition, the webbing moves so as to be wound onto the reel device by the reeling force of the device, and the tongue plate moves toward the rear of the vehicle together with the webbing. Accordingly, when a passenger attempts to put on the seat belt after sitting on a seat, he has to grasp the tongue plate by greatly twisting his upper torso toward the rear of the vehicle.
In order to avoid this inconvenience, a proposal has been made concerning an annular guide 10 for the webbing, as shown in FIG. 15, which is provided on a side of a seat back 12.
With this conventional webbing guide, however, when the passenger, indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 15, has a large body, the webbing guide 10 tends to depress the upward movement of the webbing 14, thus causing displacement of the webbing when it passes through the annular guide and, hence, an increase in the sliding resistance, thereby making it impossible for winding up and reeling off of the webbing to occur smoothly. Therefore, the webbing cannot be put on comfortably.
This displacement of the webbing can be avoided if the webbing guide 10 is extended upwardly. With this arrangement, however, the webbing guide 10 will project upwardly from the seat back 12 to an undue extent, thus spoiling the appearance of the seat and reducing its commercial value.
Conversely, with the webbing guide having an annular portion disposed on the upper surface of a seat back, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 45247/1985, the webbing cannot be put on comfortably by a passenger with a small body.
Another proposal has been made concerning a webbing guide 10, as shown in FIG. 11, which is mounted on a side of a seat back 12, as shown in FIG. 12. With this webbing guide, as shown in FIG. 13, the webbing 14 can be hung through the guide with its width kept in a substantially horizontal position when it is not in use. Also, as shown in FIG. 14, this webbing guide is capable of guiding the webbing 14 with its width inclined in a substantially vertical direction when it is to be put on, and is also capable of allowing the webbing 14 to be put on in a state of disengagement from the guide 10.
These features of the above-described conventional webbing guides, therefore, provide the following advantages. The webbing 14 is less subject to sliding resistance from the webbing guide 10 when the seat back 12 is brought to a reclining position while the webbing is not in use, or when the webbing is being reeled off. In addition, the webbing can be put on comfortably by passengers having bodies of various sizes.
Although the above-described arrangements of the webbing guide allows less restricted movement of the webbing, the arrangement is not free from the following risks. That is, the webbing 14 may become twisted or reversed, as indicated by the chain line in FIG. 14. In addition, the webbing 14 may be brushed against the webbing guide 10 when being wound up after it has been unfastened, thus making the winding operation difficult.
In order to avoid these disadvantages, another webbing guide has been proposed by Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 82969/1983 entitled "Neck Contact Prevention Device". The device has sliding members provided at the corner formed by the upper surface of a seat back and a side surface of a head rest and having a holding portion for disengageably holding the seat belt and an adjusting mechanism for arbitrarily selecting the path of back and forth movement of the seat belt by moving the holding portion along the corner-forming surfaces.
With this device, however, since the sliding members are movable members, the arrangement is complicated. In addition, the adjusting operation performed by employing the adjusting mechanism is also complicated.